“The inability to adapt brings destruction.”
– Bruce Lee

In attempting to explain why Bruce Lee won, we have to acknowledge how Bruce Lee changed.

When his career in Hollywood stalled, he took a project in Hong Kong to pay the bills. When it did well and they offered him a bigger contract, he stayed.

His martial arts evolved after every single fight because Jeet Kune Do had one philosophy above all else: “do whatever is necessary to win.”1

When his technique failed to translate on-screen, he adapted...